The Struggle Is Always Worth It is a book edited by October Krausch with contributions from 13 authors in the US and Latin America. Coming December 2026!

In 2018, I dressed in black with a few colleagues and students, and sat on the ground next to a cardboard coffin outside of the provost’s office at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. We invited passersby to contribute a memory of the university, and its liberal arts program, to a guestbook, and commemorated the passing of the university we had loved. The next day we gave a eulogy in the atrium of a campus building, surrounded by handpainted cardboard gravestones for the 25 academic programs cut by top administrators earlier that school year. After some harassment of the employees involved in these protest actions, the university went on the following year with business as usual, minus dozens of majors and minors. Did what we had done matter at all?

The Struggle Is Always Worth It argues that yes, our visible, forceful, and principled opposition was important. We did not achieve our goal – a rollback of the disastrous cuts and change to the university’s mission – but, importantly, we did not accept this change. Those of us involved in the struggle were forever changed. Our refusal, and our collective action within that refusal, is an example of the bonds that are forged and the knowledge that is generated when we come together in service of liberation. Social movements are productive; that is, groups of people organizing for liberation enact some change in the world simply by getting together and trying, whether or not that change measures up to the goals they set for themselves (and to be clear, by liberation, we mean Black liberation, trans liberation, environmental justice, abolition, feminism, an end to imperialism, open borders, and work toward a society where every single person has what they need to survive and thrive). The collection argues through essays, personal reflections, poems, and photo essays that movements are primarily creative forces rather than ways to contest for power or tear down unjust systems. As activists, we often fail to see the positive and generative outcomes of our work because of the time that change may take, or because of the everyday drudge work of activism, or because we have fallen short of our stated goals. Yet none of this negates the important transformative work that is already occurring when we join with others and fight for our collective liberation.

This book is meant to be read by those that hesitate to join in the emotionally risky experience of hoping and working for a world better than this one. It’s meant for anyone who was part of a movement and left disillusioned by the collapse and failure to achieve goals. It’s meant for anyone who is still hanging on for dear life in the struggle and could use a sermon. With first person essays and photos, the book dives into these conversations in an approachable and engaging way.

The Struggle Is Always Worth It Table of Contents:

Introduction, “We Are Seeds” - October Krausch

I. None of us are free until we’re all free. Interconnections between struggles.

1. “Stopping the World to Make Time for Ourselves: The Feminist Strike in Argentina”
Liz Mason-Deese

2. “Environmental Justice Must Be Abolitionist and Abolition Must Be Green”
David N. Pellow

3. “Holding Space for Ourselves: Future-casting for Black Liberation in Minneapolis"
Miski Noor

II. Honoring our feelings. Emotions of struggle.

4. “Grief and Impatience in and against this Hellscape”
Nate Holdren

5. “Here,” a poem
Vincent “Tank” Sherrill

6. “From Leftist Orthodoxy to Decolonizing Our Minds: An Interview with Karla Lara on the last 40 years of Central American Resistance Movements”
Karla Lara, interviewed and translated by October Krausch

III. Conjuring a better world. Struggles for the imagination.

7. “Ten Years on from the Escuelita Zapatista,” a photo essay
Micaela Ryan and Fernando Vicente Prieto

8. “Imagining a New World: Learning Decolonization through Transnational Exchanges”
Chelsey Dyer

9. “We Can’t All Be Alive at the Same Time: On Music, Solidarity, and Imagination”
Cyrus Pireh

IV. Liberation through learning. Study as struggle and struggle as study.

10. “Tending Our Relations of Solidarity: Organizing Stories for Justice in Education”
Erin Dyke

11. “Reflections on Five Years of Abolitionist Organizing: Relationships are the Foundation”
Cam Calisch and Jarvis Benson

12. “Finding Freedom in the Struggle: Popular Education and the Practice of Freedom at a School in Buenos Aires”
October Krausch

Help us bring the book into the world by pre-ordering a copy:

$25 gets you a copy of the book

$40 gets you a signed copy of the book and logo stickers designed by Ale Leonelli of Gogogoch

$50 gets you a signed copy, stickers, and a handsewn sachet or wallet

$85 gets you a signed copy, stickers, and an a CD recorded by contributor Cyrus Pireh and Ale Leonelli, “Extract for a Necessary Peace” (limit of 5)

Book Pre-sale